Street Snacks!

I have already raved about the beauty of the baked sweet potato. I thought I would take a moment to inform you about a couple of other amazing street snacks Weifang has to offer. One of the things that I love the most about travelling to different places is discovering a new addiction and developing cravings for things that you previously didn't know existed. I try to make it my goal to try something new every time I go grocery shopping. I think you have to make the same efforts when you see a bunch of street vendors. Otherwise you never know what you might have never discovered.

The added element of mystery in China is that even after you have tried some of the snacks, you don't know exactly what they are until you ask someone more experienced or someone who speaks enough Chinese to understand or someone who speaks enough English to explain it to you.  On the up side this makes you really trust your senses rather than logic and just enjoy or... sometimes not. 

Okay, let me introduce you to three Weifang street snack classics. 

Fresh Mooncakes:

These are little cakes that are filled with sweetened red bean stuff. The batter outside is a bit vanilla-y tasting. The other day I had one with some sort of corn filling. They are a sweet treat on your way home from an epic grocery shopping endeavour. They are always super hot and fresh and the cost 1 RMB each. Plus, you get to watch the lady skillfully make them and you get to watch the kids get super excited to eat them. Finally, like the sweet potato, they heat your hands up as well. It's a win all over situation. 

"Bean Drink:"

This is the little market area across the street from our school. We often walk over during our 2 hour lunch/nap time to pick up some fresh fruits or snacks. In the summer you can get some pretty great salads. At this time of year you can get the Weifang meat pies, steamed dumplings, deep-fried anything including the Weifang radish balls, tofu soup, onion flatbread, and our go-to "bean drink." It's a soy milk with red bean in it. It's pretty mealy and tasty and it warms you right up. This is Sinead enjoying an afternoon bean drink in front of one of the portable sweet potato ovens.

These are candied rose hips on a stick. They look a lot like baby candied apples.

I also love that they are sold on the back of a bicycle.

So, I thought, I would try one.

 I am undecided on whether or not I like them. Good thing I have bean drink.

Weekend Warriors Continued: Qingdao

Qingdao is the Victoria/Vancouver of China. It's a beautiful coastal city with a huge seawall that was once under German control. I am not sure of the exact history, but I am sure that it's pretty stunning. Especially when you have been landlocked in flat, flat, flat, and smoggy Weifang for months. Qingdao is also the city that brews one of the more palatable beers China makes and it's where the sailing portion of the Beijing Olympics were held. There are a lot of beautiful little spots, a lot more foreigners/ English speakers, a foreign foods grocery store, a few greasy spoon breakfast joints, and it's a short train ride away. It makes for the perfect weekend getaway. 

The old cathedral: 

The cathedral plaza is where newlywed couples freeze their asses off to take painfully staged wedding photos. I got colder just looking at them.

Right by the cathedral is this little cafe that feels like you are in both Pride and Prejudice and Discovery Coffee at the same time. There were old cameras, typewriters, paintings, and succulent plants all over. Victoria hipsters would lose their minds here. This is me and Amber enjoying pretentious coffees on old sofas.

Corner fruit stand. It's mandarin season and they are delicious.

These two gals busted a gut as they watched Sinead step in a pile of dog poop. Some humour is universal.

Laundry hanging out to freeze dry.

Truckloads of mandarins for sale! We spent a good chunk of the morning wandering through the street market in search of tasty snacks and yes, I admit it, photos.

This is a sort of super fried up onion flat bread. It's pretty tasty.

Meat market!

Fresh seafood.

Chinese cabbages. I still dont' understand how people can possibly make a living selling just cabbages.

The ocean! This was my first sighting of the ocean since we went camping way back in September. The tide was way out so people were collecting clams and oysters.

Did I mention that it's really, really, really cold in China right now?

Walking out to the gazebo and a lot of photo opps on the way.

Watching the fishermen try their luck.

Ahoy mateys! I am hoping this gives me some serious cred in the sailing community.

Bike polo!

And there you have it. Why Qingdao is just beautiful! Ocean, market, church, and good coffee. I'm going back next week.

shèng dàn kuài lè

It's Christmas. I am admittedly a bit homesick as it is my first Christmas that I have ever spent away from my family and not on Saltpspring. The good news is that we did manage to get the day off from work and we are celebrating in fine Weifang style. I've spent the last 2 hours or so waiting for these photos to load so I am going to let them do a lot of the explaining. I am sorry that the text is not in the right spots to explain the following photos properly. Apparently today's internet connection is not supporting formatting. 

It snowed! It's a White Christmas! To be fair, it snowed on Friday. Now it's Monday, and there's still snow. Also, we had a great snow day at school. These are the photos of my street at 5:30 am all covered in snow and peaceful. It was pretty magical. 

The next ones are the kids all excited to be outside making snow angels, snowmen, and having snowball fights. All in good cold fun.

No Christmas would be complete without making mice in a nutshell. My mom used to come into our classes in elementary school to make these with our classes. I've spent the last few months on a serious supply hunt to ensure that I could make them with my class. Oh, and I have eaten a lot of walnuts too. 

The next ones are my homeroom class gift exchange. You can see how adorable the kids are. They ordered matching reindeer antlers to wear all day. When I walked into the room in the morning, they gave me a pair to wear too. It's this kind of adorable thoughtfulness that makes me love these kids a lot even though I have never really been one to get into the Christmas spirit. Oh, and all of us teachers wore our ugly sweaters/scarves purchased from the streets of Weifang. I had to pair that reindeer scarf with everything that matched. Yes, this means pink pants in the winter. 

For Christmas, we had games and activities all day instead of classes. We started out with that gift exchange game where you steal presents from each other. I was the lucky recipient of a large teddy bear. The lucky student that got my present is now the owner of a one of a kind Ms. Temmel as Mau enamel cup. The grand finale was each class performing a Christmas carol. My class performed an adapted version of the 12 Days of Christmas. I helped them switch up the words so it was "...my teachers gave to me..." and then left them to it. You can also see that they made up a poster to hold up for each one. Unfortunately, they sprung my role of the 5th day of Christmas on me at the last minute. This meant that I was front and centre and having to sing with them. Obviously, I was rather embarrassed. But I figure it's fair game because as their teacher, I make them do all sorts of stuff they don't want to do all the time. 

Finally, we arrive on Christmas Day. Tragically and comically, we have all met at one of the many local shopping malls to set up camp at Starbucks all day to spike our drinks with Baileys and chat with our families on skype. It's very warm and Christmasy here. I think the lowest point was when we had Christmas lunch at KFC. I don't really have words to explain the series of events that have led me to eating at KFC on Christmas. The silver lining is that no one is cleaning up right now and I am spending my Christmas in good company. 

I hope you are all well and enjoying the holiday season with loved ones! Drink a rum and egg nog for me!